Google Spends Over $5 Mil In First Quarter On DC Lobbyists

4/24/2012 11:55 AM ET

Google spent $5.03 million on political lobbying in the first quarter of 2012, according to a report by the New York Times. That figure beats the combined amount spent by Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft in the same period.

The $5.03 million figure is up from $1.48 million over the same period last year.

Google has been drawing criticism from consumer watchdog groups for several of their endeavors including collecting unsecured Wi-Fi data via Street View vehicles, changing privacy policies and ignoring Do Not Track settings on internet browsers.

Spokesperson Samantha Smith told the NYT that "there are a number of technology issues being debated in Washington," adding that those issues are "important issues and it should be expected that we would want to help people understand our business."

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating reports that Google has unfairly abused its power in the internet search market.